Trump claimed without evidence Thursday that Democrats were trying to “steal” the US election with illegal votes, saying he would “easily win” the race against Joe Biden without the alleged interference.

“If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us,” said the president as his reelection hopes hung by a thread.

Trump said his team had launched a “tremendous amount of litigation” to counter what he called the “corruption” of Democrats, even as several officials in battleground states where the vote remains undecided have defended the integrity of the vote.